Ten Legal Education Sessions for Communities Piloted at the Second Street Law School

The Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine’s Second Street Law School has concluded in Kropyvnytskyi. During this stage of the programme, ten new legal education sessions addressing human rights, wartime challenges, and the protection of the interests of different population groups underwent their first practical testing.

The School was hosted by Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs, which warmly welcomed teams from different regions of Ukraine. In addition to the training programme, participants explored the University’s educational laboratories, visited its Psychological Support Centre, and had an opportunity to learn more about Kropyvnytskyi during a guided city tour.

The Second School continued the Street Law Schools 2026 Programme, implemented by the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine to strengthen legal awareness in communities through practical, accessible, and context-sensitive legal education. The programme’s first module focused on the Street Law methodology, human rights, social cohesion, transitional justice, plain language, and a trauma-informed approach. The teams then worked on their own topics, studied the needs of their target audiences, and developed lesson plans for sessions they will subsequently deliver in communities.

The primary purpose of the Second School was therefore not to present completed materials, but to pilot them. The teams delivered their sessions to colleagues and programme experts, received detailed feedback, and immediately identified which elements worked and which required further improvement. They assessed whether the legal information was sufficiently clear, whether the exercises met the audience’s needs, how well the team handled difficult questions, and how it responded to scepticism, excessive participation, disengagement, or emotional tension.

The teams worked with the programme experts: Yuliia Lomzhets, Chair of the ALCU Board; Viktoriia Yehorova, National National Project Officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); Liliia Amelicheva, member of the ALCU Board; and Yuliia Saienko, Coordinator of the Street Law Schools Programme.

From an Idea to a Session That Works in the Community

Street Law is a way of discussing complex legal issues so that people can apply what they have learned in their own lives: understand what steps to take, identify available protection mechanisms, ask the right questions, and avoid being left alone with their problem.

This was the approach the teams incorporated into their sessions. Each topic centred on a particular group of people or a specific situation Ukrainians face during the war: military families, male and female veterans, children of service members, internally displaced persons, people whose property has been damaged or destroyed because of the war, and communities experiencing conflict, loss, and displacement that need tools for dialogue and mutual support.

The first session was presented by the team of the PRO BONO Legal Laboratory for Clinical Teaching Methods at Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University and the LOO “Chaika”. Their topic, “The Exercise and Protection of Human Rights: What Has Martial Law Changed?”, provided an opportunity to discuss how the exercise of certain rights changes during wartime, where the boundary lies between a lawful restriction and a violation, and how these issues can be explained to a broad audience without excessive legal complexity.

The team representing the Legal Clinic of H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University and the NGO “All-Ukrainian Independent Council for Human Rights” addressed the legal protection of children of military personnel and male and female veterans. The session was important from both legal and communication perspectives: such topics require care, sensitivity, and the ability to discuss rights without adopting a formalistic approach towards people whose individual situations are shaped by their personal experience of war.

The “Law and Practice” Legal Clinic of Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University and the Bila Tserkva City NGO “Legal Unity” presented a session on online threats during wartime, including cyberbullying and recruitment risks. The topic combines legal education, digital safety, and engagement with young people, for whom the online environment is part of everyday life. During the pilot session, the team tested how to discuss risks without intimidating participants, while instead fostering responsibility and an understanding of safe behaviour procedures.

A separate session developed by the same team focused on the steps to be taken when a person goes missing under special circumstances. This is one of the programme’s most sensitive topics because it concerns families living with uncertainty, anxiety, and prolonged waiting. Such a session must explain legal mechanisms correctly while also creating a safe communication environment in which people receive practical guidance without an additional emotional burden.

The team representing the Legal Clinic of the Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of the State University of Trade and Economics and the NGO “Syla Podillia” addressed the military ombudsman as a mechanism for protecting the rights of military personnel. The session focused on tools that can help service members protect their rights and explained how the institutional mechanism for responding to violations in the military sphere operates.

The “Pro Bono” Legal Clinic of the National University of Ostroh Academy and the NGO “Rivne Human Rights Group” presented a session on the international Register of Damage for Ukraine and the procedure for submitting claims. The team succeeded in translating a complex international legal procedure into a practical step-by-step guide for people affected by the war who need clear information about available opportunities to document damage and loss.

The Mykola Udod Legal Clinic of Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University and the NGO “European Alliance of Great Opportunities” piloted a session on mechanisms for obtaining compensation for property damaged because of the war. This topic has immediate practical relevance for many communities. Particular attention during the discussion was therefore given to the clarity of the procedural explanations, the realism of the examples, and the accessibility of the steps participants could take after the session.

The team representing the “Veritas” Legal Clinic of Lutsk National Technical University and the NGO “RESPUBLIKA UA” presented a session on constructive dialogue within communities, conflict management, and the search for shared solutions amid social change. The session demonstrated that legal education is not limited to learning legal rules. It can also help develop interaction skills: listening, presenting arguments, reaching agreements, and finding solutions in situations involving tension or competing interests.

The Legal Clinic of the Faculty of Law at Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University and the NGO “Bukovyna Mediation Centre” explored the topic of memory and how society records and reflects on experiences of war, loss, and resistance. The session combined legal, humanitarian, and value-based dimensions: how to discuss memory responsibly, work with sensitive stories, and help communities make sense of their experiences without oversimplifying or formalising them.

The Specialised Legal Clinic for War-Related Issues at Sumy State University and the NGO “Sumy Youth Organisation ‘Litsey’” presented a session on volunteering as an instrument of social cohesion. The team emphasised that volunteering during wartime is not only about assisting individuals. It is also a way of maintaining connections within communities, building trust, and strengthening people’s capacity to act together.

Piloting Sessions under Conditions Close to Real-Life Practice

A distinctive feature of the Second School was that the teams worked under conditions designed to resemble real-life situations as closely as possible. During the sessions, participants from the other teams modelled different types of behaviour that trainers may encounter in communities: excessive participation, scepticism, uncomfortable questions, jokes, disengagement, interruptions, and attempts to divert the discussion.

This became an important part of the learning process. Developing a session plan is not enough to ensure that a session succeeds. During delivery, trainers must maintain the audience’s attention, preserve the logic of the session, respond to resistance, remain respectful during discussions, and stay focused on the learning objective. The usual educational challenges were compounded by circumstances familiar to everyone organising events in Ukraine during the war: air-raid alerts, the need to suspend the session and move to a shelter, and then the challenge of returning to a discussion of difficult topics.

Following each pilot session, the teams received detailed feedback from the experts and their colleagues. The discussions covered both the content and the structure of each session, its pace, the logic of the exercises, the quality of the instructions, engagement with the audience, the use of examples, and sensitivity towards the experiences of the people for whom the sessions were designed.

The Street Law School enabled the teams to move their sessions from written plans into live interaction and identify where the theoretical component needed to be shortened, where a practical example should be added, where a question required revision, and where the final step-by-step guidance for future participants needed to be strengthened.

A Trauma-Informed Approach as Part of Legal Education

Particular attention during the School was devoted to working with people whose experiences are connected with war, loss, displacement, or other traumatic events. Team leaders learned about the work of the Psychological Support Centre at Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs and participated in a practical discussion on integrating the principles of a trauma-informed approach into legal education.

This is essential to the Street Law Programme. Legal information can only be useful when it is communicated safely, clearly, and with respect for people’s experiences.

The teams therefore discussed not only what should be explained to people, but also how it should be communicated: how to avoid increasing tension, prevent stigmatisation, formulate questions appropriately, respond to emotional reactions, and protect the safety of both the audience and the trainers.

What Comes Next

Following the Second School, the teams will revise their sessions in line with the recommendations received. The next step is to deliver legal education activities in communities for young people, internally displaced persons, veterans, military families, and other population groups.

The sessions piloted in Kropyvnytskyi will provide the basis for activities through which the teams will inform people about human rights, available protection mechanisms, ways of engaging with institutions, safe behaviour, social cohesion, and mutual support during wartime.

We thank the teams for their energy, active engagement, and readiness to work on these important topics. We also express our sincere gratitude to Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs for its hospitality, support, and for providing comfortable conditions for the School participants.

The Street Law Schools Programme is conducted as part of the Human Rights Infrastructure for Ukraine Programme (2025–2027), funded by the Government of Sweden through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and implemented by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, with the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine as an implementing partner.